Waitrose and John Lewis both saw a rise in sales last week, despite the inclement weather.
A sales rise of 0.8% at Waitrose was driven by Valentine's Day preparations and promotions themed around Chinese New Year – the latter being credited with a 500% rise in sales of Chinese-style crockery, which drove a 6.7% uplift across total homeware sales.

Meanwhile, John Lewis saw an increase of 2.5%, with welcome highlights from a number of new format branches with Heathrow, Tunbridge Wells, Poole, York and Ipswich all making particularly good headway.

The strongest trade came from electricals and home technology, which saw a 5.4% rise, with white goods and vision performing particularly well, whilst fashion sales were up 4.4% with an “encouraging” reaction to new season ranges.